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Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Pin Board

I have been working on several new ideas of items to add variety to my shop. I decided to give pin boards a shot and whipped one up today. It was fun to make and it's so cute I might need to add one to my craft cave wall.

Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of the process, but it was pretty simple to make. You can buy cork in all different sizes at the craft store. Choose your size and shape, cut it out, then you're ready to go!

For this one, I pieced together three different fabrics. Insider Tip #1: Make sure you cut straight lines... or at least fairly straight. Next time I make one, I will be using my rotary cutter. Straight lines make the sewing much easier.

Sew the fabric pieces together, iron your seams, then do a nice top-stitch on either side of each seam. I like how nicely finished this makes it look. Insider Tip #2: Make sure you sew enough pieces together to cover your cork and wrap part of the way around to the back. Otherwise, you'll be like me, going back and forth between the sewing machine and the iron until it fits. Save yourself the trouble and do all the sewing first.

Next, attach the fabric to the cork. You can use spray adhesive for this for a more even application. I used hot glue because I use hot glue on everything and with the pieced fabric, an even application wasn't terribly important. (If you are doing more solid colors, spray adhesive might work better so you don't end up with lumps from the glue.) I pulled my fabric tight to the edges of the cork as I glued, then used more glue to attach it to the back side of the cork. Trim off any excess fabric.

Insider Tip #3: The fabric glued to the back of the cork will cause some bulging. To alleviate this, I simply added a circle of card stock to smooth the surface. Then, I attached a solid piece of fabric to the back, gluing carefully on the edges of the cork. Trim it neatly and make sure you don't have any stray threads coming out on the front of your board. Then, cover your edges with a coordinating ribbon! This hides the edges of your fabric and gives the whole project a nicely finished look.

Of course, you can add any embellishments you like. I simply added some coordinating covered tacks, a stick-on hook is securely glued to the back, and this pin board is ready to pin!